A staff report prepared for a County Council briefing scheduled for today (Jan. 18) shows a significant increase in homicides, carjackings and firearm-related violent crime in the county in 2021 compared to 2020. While the report notes that total violent crime decreased almost 13% in 2020 compared to 2019—largely due to COVID-related shutdowns—carjackings were up that year almost 90% and homicides increased 21%.
Residents who use rapid at-home COVID–19 tests can now report the results via a new county portal, officials announced. The self-reporting portal is available in English and six other languages, including Spanish, Vietnamese, French, Korean, Chinese and Amharic.
Montgomery County is distributing COVID-19 testing kits to community organizations to redistribute to the county’s most vulnerable and hard-to-reach populations, officials announced yesterday.
Both the county and Takoma Park have announced changes in schedules for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day on Monday, Jan. 17.
The sixth MoComCon, originally scheduled as a hybrid of in-person and virtual events, will now be all virtual events due to the increase in COVID–19 cases and the Omicron variant.
The county’s Alcohol Beverage Services retail stores, including Silver Spring, Flower Avenue and White Oak stores, will operate on reduced hours beginning today (Jan. 12), officials announced.
The county’s Department of Transportation announced it would temporarily reduce Ride On bus service beginning Sunday, Jan. 16 due to the number of employees either sick with, or exposed to, COVID–19.
The county will begin distributing rapid, at-home tests for COVID–19 at no charge on a first-come, first-served basis beginning Monday, Jan. 10. The tests will be distributed at certain times during the week at county libraries.
The County Council, acting as the Board of Health, yesterday approved a revised regulation that continues the current indoor mask mandate until at least 11:59 p.m. on Jan. 31.